THE INDIAN EMPIRE 337 lying rocks are ancient crystalline. In the Rajput Uplands wheat, millet and cotton are the staple crops ; in this region rice assumes more importance (especially if one includes the Son Valley) and cotton almost disappears. Jhansi is the town which commands the principal approach to the Foreland from the Ganges Valley. The position of Jubbulpore (124,382 in 1931) at the head of the Narbada Valley is interesting. It commands a gap through the Central Highlands to the south and the natural | - 1 UNDER 1000 FT FIG. 179. — The Central Indian Foreland. 2000FT. route down the Narbada Valley to Bombay on the West and, indeed, the easiest through route from the West Coast to the Ganges Valley. This is the line followed by the mails from Bombay to Calcutta, and vice versa, via Jubbulpore and AUaha^ bad; although the distance is greater, the gradients are less severe and the time shorter than straight across the plateau from Bombay to Calcutta via Nagpur. Jubbulpore has important cotton, manufactures.